Mobiles Will Fail in A Crisis - 19/2/2011
Posted by Cloudnet Telecommunications on Sat, Feb 19, 2011 @ 09:21 AM
“Turn down the network totally,” Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group CEO, which owns 55 per cent of Egypt’s largest carrier, Vodafone Egypt, was quoted as saying. He was implementing the order that came from the Egyptian government.
Shortly after 10pm on January 27, the first company closed down, then there was simultaneous withdrawal of services by other operators.
"We would like to make it clear that the authorities in Egypt have the technical capability to close our network, and if they had done so it would have taken much longer to restore services to our customers," Vodafone Egypt said in a statement. "It has been clear to us that there were no legal or practical options open to Vodafone or any of the mobile operators in Egypt but to comply with the demands of the authorities."
The networks were restored on January 30 but rumours persist that they may be shut down again.
It is clear yet again that in times of crisis the mobile networks have no alternative except to comply with the requests of a government or the police.
Such a position was abundantly demonstrated on the morning of 7/7 2005 – the morning of the London bombings when mobile phones stopped working in London. Recently in the 7/7 inquest the court was told that the O2 mobile phone network was disabled under protocol ACCLOC – a system allowing police to restrict telephone networks – after the bombs by a senior police officer at 11.40am.
All authorities regard the mobile phone networks as being under their control and indeed that is the reality.
This demonstrates yet again the need to have resilience in your communications strategy. Mobile networks WILL be closed down when you need them most. Landline networks and especially the Internet are a lot more difficult to close down. So without being paranoid I strongly suggest that any company that relies on a mobile only strategy such as that proposed by the large mobile providers should think again. Mobile networks break in normal times and when the times get tough they will be switched off.
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Author
By David Hill, Chairman Birchills Telecom
